The Bowflex PR1000 home gym utilizes Bowflex’s patented Power Rods, which provide resistance, or weight, that feels as good as or better than free weights–but without the inertia or risk of joint pain usually associated with free weights. You can hook one, two, three, four or all of your Power Rod units to the cable pulley system and go from as little as 5 pounds all the way up to 210 pounds of resistance.

They’re precisely manufactured from a high-tech composite material under the highest quality control measures, then sheathed and tested 4 separate times to ensure quality and durability. The Power Rod units are so strong, you can flex them repeatedly but you won’t be able to wear them out.

Reviews of Bowflex PR1000 Home Gym

Review 1: For best results

I have been a personal fitness trainer for many years and at first I too was a skeptic about the whole resistance rod thing. I have read other reviews where people who bought this particular unit say that 210lbs is not enough weight to get a good work out.

I would suggest to those of you who think you need more weight than that to try slowing the motion of your reps on whatever exercise you are doing way, way down. Say for instance you are doing bicep curls: As you curl up, do so with a slow count of 8. At the bottom of the movement start the count at one, then SLOWY curl it up to the top of the movement ending on eight, then do the same on the way back down to the bottom of the movement to get the negative resistance, which makes each single rep more like two reps both positive and negative, up then down.

This will cause you to have to MUSCLE the weight up and down as opposed to using momentum. I would also suggest that you try working each muscle group to failure if you can handle it. This method can make 20lbs seem like 50 after just two sets if you do it correctly. Mind you, you will be so very soar, but in a good way and the results will no doubt satisfy.

Review 2: Satisfied

Read many reviews on many websites. And after looking it all over, I figured I knew enough about working out, how to use equipment, and that the huge difference in price between the PR1000 and the next model up was not worth it.

Overall, I’m glad with my decision to purchase the PR1000. Free shipping with Amazon and about $75 cheaper than picking up at my local Walmart, so this was a bonus. Got in one day after I ordered it. Came UPS right to my front door, so this was another bonus since I didn’t have to go through the store process of getting it to my door by myself. Assembly was easy. Probably an hour to put together.

One negative that influenced my purchase was that I have seen in some reviews that you can max out the weights (especially with the leg press) and you cannot upgrade it. I completely understand this, however, I think for 90% of owners, the 210 lbs it came with is not going to be a factor. The whole idea with this machine is to go SLOWER than using free weights. You also get the force of the rods in BOTH directions of the exercise.

So if you are doing a bicep curl, for instance, you would be taking 2-4 seconds to do the upward motion against the resistance rods and then 2-4 seconds going back down against the resistance rods…with each complete motion you are getting DOUBLE workout. If you are doing it in a paced controlled manner, getting up to the 210 lbs weight limit doing 8-12 reps of 4-8 second motions…times 2-4 sets of reps…this is a LOT of working out for one exercise. If you are a gym rat, yes indeed you could be saying that’s not enough weight for you.

But if you are Joe/Jane Public getting your 30 minute workout each day, you will have trouble getting out of bed the next morning maxing out the rods on your exercises assuming you are doing them with the suggested methods. And quite frankly, you are beyond home gym and need to get into a real gym at that point.

So the big negative I read about not being able to upgrade the weights may or may not ever be reached by me given my workout habits. I’m just looking for strength training and so far after a couple of weeks, I’m super pleased with it overall. Only takes about 30 seconds to change over from bicep curls to leg curls or a lat pull down. Its really really simply. All the pulleys, attachments, and surfaces are nicely built and comfortable to use. I don’t have any negatives so far other than that I wish you could lay down on the bench and somehow do hamstring curls. You can only do it standing in an awkward fashion, but it does concentrate right on the glutes and hammy.

Comparing the weight numbers on the resistance rods to what you can do in free weights…well, you can just forget that. Since you are using a machine, you do get a bit of a mechanical advantage. However, its not as easy as you think that you can do more weight. You are pulling at angles that don’t necessarily give you the mechanical advantage you expect. And when you are doing the exercises in a slow and deliberate manner, the 10th rep feels 5x heavier than the 1st rep. Its deceiving and you need a few workouts to work out your ideal weight resistance rods.

Folding it up and down is very easy. I hate to say it, but even my wife can do it without help 😉 Once she used it a few times, she doesn’t need my help at all on how to switch out to do another exercise; what handle goes where, etc. I would assume for most people that your experience would be the same and you could quickly change from one exercise to another. There is a manual that comes with it that covers most exercises that would concentrate on a particular area. It also includes a couple of varied training regiments with suggestions for Day 1, Day 2, etc. Very useful, I think.

Overall, I think it was a great purchase for $450. I easily get a quality workout on professional quality equipment. Compared to my days of going to the gym and spending more time waiting inline for equipment than using it, I LOVE my BowFlex.

1. It doesn’t take as much space in my garage as I feared (about 1/3 of one car space)
2. The bands are smooth, it’s not like it starts easy then gets hard, which is what some people have said
3. Switching between exercises is far quicker than walking between stations at the gym
4. My body gets sore after each workout. AWESOME.

It does suck for biceps though, unless you happen to be 6′ 4″ and have short arms. I am 5′ 10″ and have very regular length arms, and so what happens is that the handles you use for biceps doesn’t “kick in” until you have already done about 1/5 of the bicep curl. The handles attach to the red bar you see towards the bottom of the machine. So you stand in the curl position, and you start pulling up on the handles. Then you realize that you are pulling up and up, but it hasn’t started to bend the bar yet, then when you are well into the curl, it’ll start to bend the weight bar back.

Overall though, I’m very happy. What I do to counter the bicep issue, is keep a set of dumbbells nearby and just use those. It’s really not bad! I really love this, especially for chest, tricep and shoulder exercises. Thanks for reading!

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